Description

Strawberry Spinach - Doubly Delicious

This plant has a double personality and multiple uses, combining a leafy green with fruit-bearing stalks in one crop, making a feast for the eyes as well as the palate. Enjoy the young leaves raw in salads and later enjoy the sweet delights of ripe shiny red mulberry-like fruits. Young leaves are tender with a mild spinach flavor, becoming bolder as they mature.

One of the best-kept secrets of the heirloom herb world, it is a hardy annual that is in the same family as beets and the edible weed, lamb's quarters. This explains why the roots, which are also edible, have a hint of beet flavor. Also known as Beetberry, Strawberry Sticks, heirloom spinach, and Strawberry Goosefoot. Strawberry spinach is a cool-season plant that tolerates heat much better than spinach, but bolting brings on the distinctive berries.

In addition, it’s care-free to grow and is remarkably pest-free, making it a good choice for neglected or challenging areas, or even a pot on the balcony. It will reseed and establish itself if allowed, making this a “plant once and harvest forever” type of plant.

Plants form a low rosette of spear-shaped leaves with serrated edges, before sending out long flowering stems that form "strawberry sticks". Tiny embryo fruits form at the leaf joints of the flowering stems. The fruits are pale green at first, before turning pinkish, followed by deep red. The fruits are similar looking to mulberries and are composed of many small fruitlets.

In cold winter areas, plant in early spring for first harvest of leaves in late spring and leaves and berries this summer. In warm winter areas, plant in fall for winter growth and harvest through next spring.

History

A native to most of North America throughout the United States and Canada, this delicious annual has spread around the world from North America, reaching Europe in the 1600s through exports of wool and birdseed.

Uses

Use the leaves raw (good mesclun ingredient) or cooked like spinach and chard. The berries can top your morning granola, they can also be frozen or used to make jam.

Growing Tip

Plants grow a long tap root that makes them more heat-tolerant and drought-resistant than spinach, but for the most tender leaves and juiciest berries, it is better to keep the soil constantly moist.

Strawberry Spinach is a prolific self-seeder, it is best to remove all fruit before they fall to the ground.

From the soil to the seed to the food you eat - we'll help you grow your best garden!